As the government on Monday successfully concluded the spectrum auction, collecting over Rs 1.50 lakh crore in bids from four companies including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Adani Data Networks, the fifth generation (5G) telecom services are likely to be launched in the country by October this year.
40 rounds of bidding were completed over the course of the previous 7 days. The bid is for a total of Rs 1,50,173 crore. Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Communications, Electronics, and Information Technology, revealed during a press conference after the auction for 5G spectrum ended that 51,236 MHz, or around 71 percent, of the total spectrum on offer totaled 72,098 MHz.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited submitted bids totaling Rs 88,078 crore, which means 58.65% of the total of Rs 1,50,173 crore that the government earned from the sale of 5G spectrum. Jio has submitted bids to purchase 24,740 MHz of spectrum at frequencies including 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 1800 MHz, 3300 MHz, and 26 GHz.
As tweeted by news agency ANI:
“5G services in India to be launched by October, spectrum allocation by Aug 10”
Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a statement given to ANI, said, “The allocation of the spectrum to the successful bidders would be done by August 10 and the 5G services are likely to be launched in the country by October this year.”
“It appears that 5G could be introduced in the nation by October. The upcoming 5G spectrum auction shows that the nation’s telecom industry has made significant progress toward 5G,” he further added. More the spectrum availability, higher the calibre of telecom services offered in the country, as said by minister Ashwini Vaishnav.
